Diabetes in the long run. My personal experience of what it's like to be a type 1 diabetic runner and triathlete.

Thought for the Day

Sunday, March 28, 2004

DC Ranch 5K/10K Double 2004

Earlier I said if I went to the DC Ranch Run, I'd run the 10K. If not, I'd run 20 with the East Valley Runners.So I thought about it, and decided that doing both the 5K and 10K would be almost as good as doing a long run, but I would get to race, too.The 5K would start at 8:25, and the 10K was at 9. Plenty of time for both.I felt very tight in the 5K. I wasn't sure what the course would be like, and it turned out to be all rolling hills. Steep rolling hills.My quads felt pretty tight the whole race, and the late start made it very warm. I could see a couple of runners in my age group pass me near the first mile point, but try as I might, I couldn't catch them. I finished fourth in my age group in 21:34.It turns out it was a very competitive age group, and by that, I don't mean that we were all fast. I mean that there were seven of us within a couple of minutes of each other. There were runners in my division 2 and four seconds behind me. So it's good that I kept pushing to the finish.My splits:

The 10K included the entire 5K course, the first half at the start, and finishing along the same route, but with a long trip into the foothills, part way up a mountain, and back down.Where the 10K course split off from the 5K course, a volunteer was saying, "Turn right and take the sidewalk." Well, some of us went on the sidewalk, and others stayed on the street. The sidewalk had more turns and dips than the street, so some of us did a little more than others. I was a little bothered by it, but I don't think it mattered much since it was only for a few yards.It was getting very hot out, too. I drank as much as I could while running and threw water over myself at every water station.I didn't feel as tight as I had in the 5K. I was able to settle into a more comfortable race pace. You can see some of the uphills and downhills in my splits. I held my own on the uphills, and did very well passing people on the downhills.I ran a 45:09, and took third in my division.

There were no awards or medals, just a discount at the local running store. I got $10 off for finishing 3rd. First and second were worth $25 and $15 off. It's all right, I got a nice shirt off the clearance rack, but I would've like to have gotten some race junk toput on my shelf.Oh well, it was a great way to spend Saturday morning.I was pretty tired the rest of the day, and a little sore this morning.